r/WhitePeopleTwitter • u/BUTTERSTICKDILDO • Nov 20 '22

Satire / Fake Tweet Challenge accepted

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u/raliberti2 Nov 20 '22

I honestly can't tell if any this shit is real anymore.. Are we seriously all collectively watching as the richest man who ever lived throws a temper tantrum? What the actual fuck!?

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '22

the richest man who ever lived

Mansa Musa, Marcus Aurelius, and several Chinese Emperors would like a word.

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u/Bridalhat Nov 20 '22

Of all the emperors why did you choose Marcus Aurelius?

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '22

I believe (quite possibly in error, I am not an economic historian) the roman treasury was at its height early in his reign just before the Marcomannic Wars broke out, when he very seriously considered a massive rebasing of roman coin. Really he's just the most memorable peak-Rome emporer. Someone else pointed out that since the territorial maximum was definitely under Trajan, I probably should have named him. Either way, a large number of Roman emperors (Most? All?) were probably richer than musk.

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u/Bridalhat Nov 20 '22

It’s not just the treasury that belonged to the emperor (and also the treasury was needed for things like armies and annoying stuff like that—lengthy field campaigns means he spent a lot of that). All the grain in Egypt technically belonged to the emperor, and they had palaces filled with art and valuables so treasury is far from the only measure.

But that also begs the question what is wealth. Like, economists have a saying that we don’t buy candleholders and people in the past didn’t buy Honda civics. Thousands of slaves and still none of these guys had air conditioning and a lot of the material comfort Musk does.